Clothesline equipment



Nov., 24, 1959 F. HANSEN z-:TAL 2,914,188

CLOTHESLINE EQUIPMENT Filed nec. 1, 1958 INVENTORS FRED HRA/SEN N/cHoLHs H, PLH T/ an HTT EY United States Patent CLOTHESLINE EQUIPMENT Fred Hansen, White Plains, and Nicholas A. Plati, Yonkers, N .Y.

Application December 1, 1958, Serial No. 777,432

1 Claim. (Cl. 211-119.15)

This invention relates to clothesline equipment and more particularly to a clothesline that can be used indoors in drying laundry and that can readily be installed in any room in the house.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide clothesline equipment that can readily be installed in a bathroom over a bathtub so that the water from the clothes drying overhead will drip into the bathtub.

Another object of the invention is to provide clothesline equipment for indoor use in a bathroom wherein the line may be manually drawn quickly into operative position over the bathtub when needed for drying clothes and may be quickly and automatically moved out of sight when not in use;

A specific object of the invention is to provide a clothesline equipment for indoor use wherein the line is wound upon a roller and paid out, with means for locking the movement of the line as soon as the desired length of line has been paid out.

It is a further object of the invention to provide clothesline equipment of this character that presents no storage problems when not in use, that is sanitary, simple in construction and can be manufactured and sold at a reasonable cost.

For further comprehension of the invention and of the objects and advantages thereof reference will be had to the accompanying drawing wherein- Fig. l is a perspective View of clothesline equipment embodying the invention, the line being shown in its distended operative position.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view through the center of the housing of the equipment showing the equipment installed on the wall of a room and showing the line in collapsed, retracted, inoperative position, parts being shown broken away.

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on the plane of the line 3 3 of Fig, 2, on an enlarged scale.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary detail sectional view showing the line in operative position and removably fastened to an opposite wall of the room, the line attaching bar being shown in tilted position ready to slip over the supporting hook, in dot-dash lines.

Referring to the drawing in detail, a clothesline embodying the invention is shown in Fig. l and is designated generally by the reference numeral 10. The clothesline comprises broadly a hollow elongated housing or casing 12, a roller 14 journalled in the housing, two separate ropes or lines 16, 16 coiled around the roller, and an attaching bar 18 carried by loops 20, 20 of the lines 16, 16. The housing and line attaching bar are formed of lightweight metal, preferably aluminum, but may be made of sheet metal, plastic material or any other suitable material. If made of plastic, the material may be colored for decorative purposes.

The housing 12 consists of a llat base plate 22 of a length equal to the width of a standard sized bathtub, with auges 24 along the long edges thereof, and a body portion 26 extending substantially the length of the plate.

ICC

Each end of the plate extends a short distance beyond the body portion as indicated at 28. The body portion 26 is substantially semi-circular in cross-section coming to a curved blunt point 30 opposite the base plate 22 and is secured to the base plate. Each end of the body portion is closed by an end wall 32 provided with an extension 34 extending perpendicularly to the wall and superimposed on the adjacent extension 28 of the base plate. A pair of aligned holes 36 are formed in the extension 28 and 34 at each end of the housing for receiving fastening elements such as screws -40 for securing the housing 12 and base plate 22 together and for securing the clothesline to a supporting surface such as a side wall 42 of a bathroom.

The roller 14 is cylindrical and Wooden with a solid end 46 and a hollow end 48. A metal cap 50 is secured to the hollow end of the roller. A spring mounting rod 52 is rotatably mounted in the hollow end and disposed axially of the roller. A rectangular peg 54 has one end secured to the outer end of the rod 52 and extends loosely through an opening in the cap 50 outwardly of the cap. A compression spring 56 of the helical spiral type is sleeved around the rod '52, with one end secured to the rod adjacent its inner free end and with the other end secured to cap Sti. This arrangement allows the roller 14 to rotate relative to the peg 54 and causes the `spring 56 to become under tension for rewinding the roller upon release. The rectangular peg 54 is positioned in a central rectangular-shaped opening 58 in a bracket 60 in the housing at one end thereof, the bracket being formed with a radial slot 62 communicating with the central opening 58 and intersecting the edge of the bracket to permit insertion of the peg into the central opening. The edge walls of the central opening 58 in the bracket preventsrotation of the peg 54.

An elongated peg or rod 64 extends from the solid end 46 of the roller, one end of the rod being -anchored in the solid end, the other free end projecting through a central opening 66 in a bracket 68 in the housing at the solid end thereof, and through a central opening 70 in the adjacent end wall 32 of the body of the housing and outwardly of the end wall. A knob 72 is fastened to the outer free end of the peg for manually turning the roller. The peg or rod 64 is noncircular in cross-section.

=In applying the lines 16, 16 to the roller 14, each line 16 is doubled upon itself to form an elongated loop 20, and the free 'ends 76 of the lines are inserted through a pair of spaced holes 78 formed on opposite sides of the midlength of the line attaching bar 18, and through pairs of similarly spaced holes Sti in the front end wall 30 of the body of the housing. The free ends of the lines are anchored to the roller 14 at closely spaced points therealong by means of nails 82, and the reaches 84 of the loops wound around the roller to provide two closely spaced coils 86 of line on the roller, with the loops 20 interlocked with the attaching bar 18 on the outer surface thereof.

By reason of this construction, the lines 16 may be manually unwound and distended to the position of the parts shown in Fig. l by manually grasping the attaching bar 18 and drawing it outwardly away from the housing against the action of spring 56. The bar 18 is formed with holes l38 at its ends for releasably attaching the lines to hooks 90 anchored in a supporting wall such as the wall 92 in the bath room opposite to wall 42. `In order to mount the bar on the hooks, the bar is tilted slightly so that its upper end is tilted ltoward the wall and the opposite bottom end is tilted away from the wall as shown in dot-dash lines in Fig. 4. This tilting operation brings the holes 88 in the bar into register with the tops of the hooks and the bar is then slid downwardly over the hooks to the position shown in full lines in Fig. 4, the pull of the spring 56 in the roller 14 pulling the bar into contact with the tops of the hooks and with the bases of the hooks thereby preventing displacement of the bar on the'hooks.

In accordance with the invention, mechanism is providedfor preventing relative rotation between the rotatable peg 54 and the roller 14. This mechanism includes an elongated metal rectangular latching plate 94 slidably mounted over the opening 70 in the end wall of the body of .the housing. Plate 94 is formed with a ange 96 extending from the outer end thereof at right angles to the plate and constituting a finger piece for longitudinally sliding the plate. A pair of narrow aligned slots 98 isformed in the plate centrally thereof in spaced relation and also formed in the plate in the space between the Aslots 98 is an elongated opening. One end of the opening, the lefthand end as viewed in Fig. 3, is enlarged as indicated at 100 while the other end is narrower and angular as indicated at 102. The peg or rod 64 on ,roller 14 extends through the central opening in the plate 94 and sliding movement of the plate is guided by headed bolts 104 secured in the end wall 32 and projecting through the slots 98, coacting with the edge walls of the slots. -In order to prevent rotation of the roller 14 relative to the rotatable peg 54, the plate 94 is slid inwardly by means of the finger piece 96 bringing the narrow angular end -102 of the central opening of the plate down around the rectangular peg 64 whereby the edge walls of the opening 102 engage the peg and prevent rotation thereof and accordingly prevent rotation of the roller 14 relative to the peg 54.

1n using the improved clothesline, the housing 12 is secured to the supporting surface such as the wall 42 of a bathroom at a point thereon in line with the bathtub by `means of the screws 40. The spring 56 in roller 14 is normally under tension holding the lines 16 in coiled condition upon the roller 14 and holding the attaching bar 18 in intimate contact with the front end 30 of the body of the housing 12 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The line attaching bar 18 is then manually pulled outwardly away from the housing against the action of the spring 56, thereby further tensioning the spring, and is hooked over the hooks 90 on the opposite Wall 92 of the bathroom, for example, so that the reaches 84 of the lines are positioned over the bathtub. If the reaches 84 of the lines sag by reason of the weight of the Wet clothes hanging thereon, the roller 14 may be turned relative to the peg 54 by means of the knob 72 thereby further tensioning the spring 56 and taking up the slack in the reaches of the lines.

lln order to retract the attaching bar 18 and the reaches 84 of the lines 16, it is merely necessary to unhook the bar from the hooks 90 and the spring 56 Will automatically retract the bar and lines to the position of Fig. 2.

While we have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that 4 changes in details of construction might be made without departing from the principle of the invention and we 'desire to be limited only by the state of the prior art and the appended claim.

We claim:

Clothesline equipment comprising an elongated hollow semi-circular housing with end walls, with a central opening in one of said walls, said housing having spaced openings therealong, a roller journalled in said housing, said roller having a solid end portion and a hollow end portion, a spring-mounting rod in said hollow portion having one end rotatably connected to a stationary part of the roller, a peg extending from the other end of said rod, an elongated noncircular peg having one end anchored in the solid end of the roller and forming an extension of the roller, said elongated peg extending through the opening in said one end wall of the body of the housing to the exterior thereof, spaced clotheslines coiled around said roller, said clotheslines each having its ends attached to, said roller and each having a looped formation, an elongated line-attaching bar connected to the looped formations of said lines, said bar disposed parallel to the housing, spring mechanism in the roller for automatically coiling said lines around the roller and for normally positioning the line-attaching bar in intimate contact with the housing, said mechanism including a compression spring coiled around said spring-mounting rod with one end attached to the free end thereof and the other end to the roller, a rectangular shaped plate slidably mounted on said one end Wall over the opening in the end wall, said plate having a central elongated opening and spaced elongated narrow slots on opposite sides of the central opening, said elongated peg extending through the central opening in the plate, said plate having a-ange extending radially of one end for manipulating the plate, bolts extending radially from said one end Wall and through the narrow slots in the plate for guiding the movements of the plate, the central opening in said plate having an enlarged end portion and a smaller end portion angular in cross-section, the edge wall of the latter smaller portion adapted to engage the elongated peg upon sliding the plate in one direction for holding the roller against rotation relative to the rotatable peg.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 896,765 Sears Aug. 25, 1908 1,493,436 Kubista May 6, 1924 2,007,050 Hirschmann July 2, 1935 2,132,548 Stockwell Oct. 11, 1938 2,481,638 Borup Sept. 13, 1949 2,499,123 White Feb. 28, 1950 2,865,514 Goodman Dec. 23, 1958 

